A day after a fire destroyed virtually all of Harris County's electronic voting gear, officials were still determining the cause of the warehouse blaze and furiously exploring ways to accommodate voters come early November.

Houston's fire marshal's office hasn't made a ruling on whether Friday's early-morning fire was accidental or deliberately set, said Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, who hopes to hear something on the cause early this week.

"It would break my heart to think someone would do something like this to the election process," she said, adding that she was unaware of anyone who might have had a motive to burn down the building.

The building in the 600 block of Canino on the city's north side did have a sprinkler system, but Kaufman said she was unsure if it was properly functioning or if there might have been any failures.

The three-alarm blaze broke out in the 28,000-square-foot warehouse just after 4 a.m., destroying some 10,000 pieces of election gear housed there.

The total loss was valued at about $40 million — $30 million in voting equipment and $10 million for the building, said Kaufman.

The machines were set to supply nearly 800 polling sites for early voting, which begins Oct. 18.

"I'm sure glad this coming election is not a presidential election," said Kaufman.

Kaufman said she and the office's election administrator, John German, are focusing on figuring out where 15 to 30 staff members will report for work, what the county needs to hold the election and how to execute and pay for the plan. The office is exploring whether to borrow machines from counterparts across the state, among other possibilities.

Harris County Commissioners Court will meet in an emergency session Monday to receive the county clerk's proposed recovery plan.

Joe Stinebaker, spokesman for Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, said Saturday he hasn't a clue whether the financial needs will be minor or major. County reserve funds may be available for the expense, Stinebaker said.